Israeli man recalls how Hamas ‘kidnapped’ wife, two daughters: ‘…then call got cut off’

Israel-Hamas war updates: Yoni Asher is back at his home in central Israel after his countless bids to get assistance from authorities to rescue his wife, mother-in-law and two children who, he suspects, were abducted by Hamas militants when they launched a surprise assault on Saturday. Asher’s wife, Doron Asher Katz, 34, was visiting her mother in the community Nir Oz near the border with their two young daughters when Hamas attacked.

"She told me the terrorists are in the house," Asher told news agency Reuters. Then the call got cut off. Later on, he located her mobile phone through her Google account. Its location was Khan Younis, a city in Gaza. He then saw a TikTok video that spread on social media of them being taken to Gaza.

"I surely identified my wife, my two daughters and my mother-in-law on some kind of a cart, and terrorists of Hamas all around them," he said.

"My little two girls, they are only babies, they are not even 5-years-old and 3-years-old ... I don't know in what terms they are captive. I don't know what happened to them."

Hamas militants, many on motorcycles and paragliders stormed blockaded areas of the Gaza Strip, shooting indiscriminately at people on the Israel side of the border. Video footage surfaced of Hamas men abducting Israeli citizens – including mothers, children and the elderly – and taking them back across the border into Gaza.

Doron Asher Katz is one of an unknown number of Israelis who have been captured and presumed held hostage after an unprecedented invasion by Hamas militants of southern Israel.

It’s unclear how many hostages have been taken. Hamas has said it was holding dozens of commanders and soldiers. Israeli media reported that the number was at least 100, including elderly people and children. The militant group Palestinian Islamic Jihad, separate from Hamas, said it was holding 30 hostages and wouldn’t return them until Palestinian prisoners were freed. The Israeli military confirmed that hostages had been taken but wouldn’t give a figure.

“I saw she had been taken into Kfar Younis which is deep inside Gaza,” Asher, a real estate, told The Independent, adding, “The GPS even showed us the route the terrorists took.”

Alongside his wife was his mother-in-law Efrat, believed to be part of the hostages the Palestinian militants claim to be holding.

“On Saturday morning, I received a call from my wife visiting her mother Efrat and her partner Gadi in the kibbutz,” The Independent quoted Asher as saying.

“I was at home in central Israel and we got news that the Palestinians were firing rockets over there and there was an invasion. My wife was whispering,” he added.

According to Asher, Hamas came to Nir Oz and surrounded the house. Doron, her mother and the two girls barricaded themselves inside the family bomb shelter.

“Apparently, Gadi had tried to negotiate with them, maybe offer himself up in exchange for the children but they took him. I hung up as I didn’t want to put them in danger, that was the last I ever heard from them,” he said.

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